Parashat Ha Shavua Commentaries

One of the canards leveled against Judaism is that it holds Jewish people to be superior to all others. From early antiquity, in the writings of Josephus, we read of Antisemites who accuse Judaism of cultivating a disdain for the rest of humanity. Because we claim that God has singled us out from among all the peoples of the earth by giving us the Torah, the charge goes, we also believe that we are better than the rest of humanity. Hence we try to keep separate from everybody else. Hence we only use other people for our own benefits and our own purposes. Read more...

One of the most famous of ancient Israel’s symbols of God’s presence is the bush that was aflame yet would not be consumed.  That startling image has been taken both as a representation of a living faith and of the unquenchable spirit of the Jewish people.  The burning bush has become the logo for countless Jewish institutions (such as the Jewish Theological Seminary, for example) and adorns innumerable Torah mantles in synagogues all over the world. Read more...

One of the most troubling facets of the Torah is its apparent acceptance of the dominant patriarchy that pervaded the ancient world (and much of the modern world too).  The Ten Commandments are clearly addressed specifically to the men (“Don’t covet your neighbor’s wife”) as are many of the mitzvot, the preponderance of heroes are men, and even God is addressed primarily in masculine terms.  Of late, that male perspective and focus has become a bit of a stumbling block for those who would look to the Torah for vindication of the notion of the equal worth of men and women.  In Read more...

Some time ago, I received a message from a friend, asking me to call her back to help answer what she called a rabbi question. At the first free moment, I called her back. Friends of hers, a couple who had been married for what was going on twenty five years were interested in renewing their vows in celebration of their upcoming anniversary. But, she said, they wanted to know what Judaism had to say about the renewal of wedding vows. Read more...

With Parashat B’Hukkotai, the Book of Leviticus comes to an end. The central book of the Torah, Leviticus is the book of priestly holiness, enjoining the people Israel to become a nation of priests and a holy people. Laws pertaining to ritual purity and impurity, to sexual ethics, as well as a magnificent summation of torah itself, in the Holiness Code, give this book its abiding value and depth. Read more...